Permanent magnet devices for holding tools, nuts and bolts, and various other items in place for supposedly easy access have been commercially marketed. In one version of such magnetic tool holder, a one inch wide strip, of some two-four foot length, is attachable to a wall, or other non-metallic surface, and provides an opposing surface towards the user, onto which pliers, wrenches, calipers, scales, nuts and bolts are to be placed for supposed easy access. Experience has shown, however, that the arrangement of the tool, etc., along the strip is critical, in order that the magnetic attractive force will overcome the forces of gravity, in holding the item in place. Thus, it is not sufficient to just place a wrench, for example, in perpendicular alignment to the orientation of the magnetic strip, but that the wrench must be positioned so that most of its length extends downwardly from the strip. Otherwise--and not only with this particular example--the tool will be observed to fall to the ground, in defeating the intended purpose.
Although readily apparent that the magnetic attachment arrangement of this type is not usable where the magnetic tool holder is itself intended to be secured to a metallic surface--as, for example, at a machine bed--a second available strip configuration which permits such securement suffers the disadvantage that the permanent magnets employed are positioned at spaced intervals along the length of the strip, sometimes as much as four-six inches apart, and, also, exhibit a limited holding power which require criticality in the placement of the tool, or device, to be held. While this latter arrangement offers the advantage of portability, in that it can be removed from a machine bed easily, to be placed on the frame of an automobile on which a mechanic is then working, for example, the restricted holding power afforded contributes quite substantially to the tool, for example, actually falling, or, at the very least, presenting the fear of its falling--as is of prime concern if the magnetic attachment arrangement were to be used by a workman many stories up during a skyscraper construction where securement to a structural beam might be desired.
Clearly, although the "magnetic attractiveness" feature might be promoted in an advertising campaign for the home workshop mechanic, these devices are not generally usable in an industrial operative climate, where more serious effects could result than a mere falling of a pliers or scale to a floor, for the home craftsman to retrieve.